The present invention relates to fish processing, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for removing the gills, viscera and blood line kidney from head on fish.
When cleaning head on fish such as trout it is necessary to remove the gills, viscera and blood line kidney without damaging the head, backbone or ribs. Although fish processing machines have been designed for cleaning head on fish none have been totally satisfactory. In particular, the prior art machines are size limited, that is, these machines can only work on a narrow size range of fish at any one time. Problems with correctly positioning different size fish have resulted in undesirable damage to the fish head, backbone and ribs. Such machines also incorporate complex electro-hydraulic controls for controlling the position of cleaning and cutting devices with respect to the fish being processed, and thus are expensive to manufacture, difficult to start up, and expensive to maintain.